U.S. judge dismisses most Celsius claims against Chainalysis, lets one count proceed

According to Cointelegraph, a U.S. federal judge dismissed most of the claims brought by the Celsius litigation administrator against blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, but allowed one claim to continue.

One aiding-and-abetting claim survives

Margaret Garnett, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, ruled on Tuesday that Chainalysis’ request to dismiss the aiding-and-abetting claim should be denied. The court said the complaint sufficiently alleged that Chainalysis knew a 2020 Celsius press release contained false statements and helped distribute those statements.

Most other claims were dismissed

The court dismissed 12 other claims with prejudice, preventing the plaintiff from amending those claims in this case. It also dismissed three consumer-protection claims without prejudice. The plaintiff must amend them by Oct. 20 or inform the court that it will not do so.

Who brought the case

The lawsuit was filed by Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium, or BRIC, in its role as litigation administrator and recovery administrator for the Celsius bankruptcy estate. BRIC said it was acting on behalf of Celsius and certain former customers. Chainalysis declined to comment to Cointelegraph.

Dispute centers on a $3.3 billion “audit”

At the center of the case is a purported $3.3 billion “audit.” In 2020, Celsius used Chainalysis’ Reactor software to calculate its assets under management and then publicly described the result as an audit.

According to the complaint as summarized by the court, a Celsius executive initially used Reactor to calculate roughly $1.18 billion in assets. After a change in methodology, that figure increased to about $3.3 billion.